Whether the Stinnes-Lubersac scheme comes to much or not It
is significant. It is always a healthy sign when private traders, tired of the delays of their Government, go on in advance and try to put matters straight by their own efforts. This is what is happening under the arrangement between M. de Lubersac and Herr Stinnes. It is not, as the Paris correspondent of the Times tells us, an agreement so much as an announcement of what has been done and what it is still hoped to do in building up trade between France and Germany. The personality of M. de Lubersac makes the plan even more significant, because he is a Senator of the Right and represents the Department of the Aisne which was traversed by the Hindenburg line and suffered more than almost any other district from devastation. In the name of the inhabitants of this afflicted district M. de Lubersac arranged for the German group controlled by Herr Stinnes to supply them with the articles they chiefly needed. It is said that in little more than a month orders have been placed to the value of about £90,000. Naturally the most criticized point is that the Stinnes group takes 6 per cent. on the transactions.
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